This invention relates to dough dividers, and in particular to dough dividers with a sealed chamber in which the dough is positioned.
Dough dividers are used extensively for dividing large masses of dough into small, ready to use pieces of dough. Dough dividers are used in the pizza and bakery businesses for evenly dividing the large mass of dough into, for example, an equal number of pizza crusts or loaves of bread.
Heretofore, dough dividers have included machines having sealable chambers, wherein the dough is placed within the chamber and compressed in order to have the dough completely and uniformly fill the chamber and evenly divide the dough. The dough dividers have a lid that closes the top of the chamber and a bottom floor that can rise towards the lid in order to compress the dough between the lid and the floor. After the dough has been compressed, knives are inserted through the floor of the dough divider in order to evenly divide the dough.
A problem with such dough dividers arises if the dough is left in the chamber for an extended period of time. As the dough remains in the chamber, yeast in the dough causes the dough to rise and thereby exerts pressure against the lid of the chamber. Therefore, the chamber will have a large amount of pressure acting against the bottom of the lid. This large amount of pressure acting against the bottom of the lid can wedge the locking mechanism of the lid, thereby making the lid very hard to open. Furthermore, when the lid is finally opened, the lid will be forced rapidly and dangerously upward because of the pressure applied to the bottom of the lid.
Accordingly, an apparatus solving the aforementioned disadvantages and having the aforementioned advantages is desired.